Fun Autumn Crafts and Activities for Kids
This time of the year is my favorite! Once I finish putting away the Halloween decorations and the October pumpkin activities, it’s time for some Thanksgiving love.
One of my and Gabrielle’s most popular Made For Me Literacy units is the month of November lesson plans, “All About Turkeys.”
Even though we create Made For Me Literacy for special education students, homeschool teachers, and parents with children home during the pandemic or just home for the holidays love the curriculum because there are so many educational hands-on kids activities for the little ones!
Visual recipes to make in the classroom or at home
Along with the pumpkin pie in a cup and cloud dough visual recipes available in October’s, “All About Pumpkins” unit, and November’s Turkey Cookie recipe and the Play Dough turkey art instructions, the whole family can get in on the fun to help get into the spirit of giving thanks.
Free learning activity for emergent readers
Another fun activity to help get you and your kids in the Thanksgiving spirit is an easy and free printable for a craftivity I made to go with the popular children’s book, “10 Fat Turkeys.”
“10 Fat Turkeys” is a great Thanksgiving themed story time book to add to your young readers and special needs student’s reading program.
Counting backwards
The book’s repeated phrases and silly rhymes are perfect for my emergent readers. Plus, we get to practice counting down from ten, just in time for our upcoming subtraction unit. Besides kicking off a Thanksgiving celebration in your classroom with a fun read-a-loud, “10 Fat Turkeys” is a wonderful resource for teaching number sense.
Free Popsicle counting sticks activity
To introduce this book, I made turkey count-down sticks to help us practice simple math.
Grab this free printable Thanksgiving printable here. 
I taped one turkey onto a popsicle stick and taped a number onto the back. You will have 10 turkeys total, with numbers 0-9 on the back of them.
I then took my 10 turkey popsicle sticks and poked them through the bottom of a Styrofoam egg carton, keeping them in ascending order from 0-9. All 10 turkeys will be facing the students as you introduce the story.
Girls and boys gobble up turkey this fun game
As the turkeys fall off the fence, turn the popsicle sticks around to reveal the number of remaining turkeys. My students LOVE yelling out the next number, especially since they correspond with the rhyming words in the book!
After we have finished reading the book, we make our annual turkey cookies!
Easy recipe for cooking in the classroom
TURKEY COOKIES
For these cookies each student will need:
- 1 sugar cookie
- small cup of chocolate frosting
- 11 pieces of candy corn (10 for feathers and 1 for the beak)
- 2 Froot Loops (for the eyes)
- 2 mini m&m’s (for the pupils, which are optional)
I love this activity because we get to practice counting out the ingredients as we put them on. And the kids love this activity because it is delicious!
*Find more fun turkey activities in my and Gabrielle Dixon’s (Teaching Special Thinkers) Made For Me Literacy Curriculum, All About Turkeys.
Ever since I can remember, I’ve been drawn to people with special needs. It makes me happy to watch my students grow and progress with all their hard work. I truly believe I was put on this planet to work with these children.
If you’ve seen my posts recently, you may be thinking, “wow, Michaela sure has been posting a lot about her projects and activities! But why?”
Well, as a special education teacher in a self-contained classroom, I know how challenging it can be for my students to access the grade-level curriculum. Resources are limited and can require hours worth of accommodations and modifications.
The intention behind my TPT store is to provide teachers with adapted teaching materials that focus on the prerequisite skills needed to master grade-level standards and provide engaging, hands-on activities that make learning exciting and appropriate.
Hello! I LOVE THIS! Do you happen to have a copy of the cookie recipe?
Thank you!
Darcy
This is so cute! Where can I find the cookie recipe?
This is awesome! My kids will love this – thank you